Traditionally, if a user desires to trade on a financial instrument, the user needs to take the initiative of opening an account with a financial institution and fund the account with an appropriate amount to cover the trade. Specifically, traditional steps involved in opening and funding an account include performing background and/or credit checks on the user and clearing the fund transferred into the account by the user before allowing the user to place a trade. The account can be funded by a variety of means, such as check deposit (e.g. via CHECKscan™) or fund transfer from other accounts (e.g. bank, PayPal, or iTunes). However, there is often a significant lag time, sometimes up to a period of days, between the time when the user decides to open the account and the time when trading can begin. This can not only delay the user's ability to place a trade when the user does not have an account with a financial institution, but also negatively impact the profit margin of the financial institution offering the trading service.